Doncaster loner jumped from viaduct

Conisbrough viaduct, scene of a suicide. Picture: Tony Saxton

A loner whose life was blighted by acne jumped almost 200ft from the Conisbrough viaduct to kill himself, a Doncaster inquest heard.

The hearing was told 30-year-old Lee Matthew Silcock lived in ‘disordered’ squalor in a bedroom at his parents’ neat and tidy home in Harlington, had no friends and did not socialise.

Lee, who was unemployed, died from multiple injuries after he climbed over the barrier along the disused railway viaduct and plunged to the ground on October 23 last year.

Police traced his identity through a bank slip in his clothing and when officers went to the family home in Crane Moor Close they found his bedroom was ‘under two feet of refuse’.

Sgt Brad Wynne told the inquest: “From the doorway we had to climb on top of rubbish. “There was no specific bed or carpet that could be seen. He was living in a very disordered room in an otherwise immaculate house.

“Because of the condition of the room it wasn’t suitable to be searched without appropriate clothing so the task force was sent in.”

Officers found letters written by Lee which ‘might indicate a slightly disordered thought pattern’ but did not make reference to harming himself.

They also found the medication his doctor had prescribed for the acne but he appeared not to have been taking it before his death.

Lee’s father, Merrick Silcock, 63, said his son had been ‘extremely unpredictable’ in recent years with anger problems but had not mentioned self-harm.

“He could not really communicate with members of the family and I suggested counselling but he said he did not need it and refused to go.”

Assistant coroner Richard Baker concluded Silcock had taken his own life.